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I walk quickly. I pay attention to my surroundings, but the solitude and the vastness of the parking lot suddenly overwhelm me and I feel anxious to get to my car.
I think again about the flowers. I should feel flattered by them. That was the sender’s intent, but I don’t feel flattered because I don’t know who they’re from. Someone knows something I don’t. Whether it was Jake or not, I don’t like that. And if it was Jake, then I don’t like this game he’s playing with me.
The content of the note was bothersome too.I love to see your smile, it said, which tells me someone is watching me.
CHRISTIAN
Lily is standing in the family room when I come home. I’m later than usual because Thursday nights I meet some guys at the gym to shoot hoops, and then we go and get a drink. Tonight I considered not going with them but coming home to Lily instead, though ultimately I decided to go because, after thinking about it, it seemed like the best thing for me to do—for both Lily and me to do—is to not break from routine.
Now Lily stands at the windows, looking away from me, out into the yard. Her arms are crossed, her brown hair hanging long and wavy down her back. I can tell from the way she stands that Lily is anxious about something, and I feel guilty for sticking around for a second beer.
I come up from behind. I set my hands on her shoulders and massage them, feeling the tension she carries in her shoulders and neck.
“Hey,” I say. Lily turns around, and I know something is wrong but, for the first time in a while, my initial thought is not that something terrible has happened to the baby. “What happened?” I ask.
“Nina went to the police,” she says.
“And?” I ask, slowly, drawing it out.
“She told them that Jake is missing.”
“Okay,” I say. “And what did they say?”
“They weren’t too worried about it. They think he may have left voluntarily.”
“Okay,” I say again, nodding. “That’s good, right? For us.” I smile. I reach for her hands. I try and stay optimistic. I’m not actually worried about this at all. I can see that Lily is upset but I think I knew that inevitably Nina would one day go to the police. She had to. She couldn’t let her husband be gone forever and not say anything. It would be cruel if not suspicious. Lily nods, but I can tell she’s not so sure this is a good thing. “It’s okay, babe. Don’t worry about it. It’s a formality.”
“There’s more,” Lily says.
“What?” I ask, growing serious again because the tone of her voice scares me.
“Someone saw me there.”
“Saw you where?”
“At Langley Woods.”
A knot rises up to my throat. I swallow it back. It takes effort. I can feel my heartbeat in my ears, pounding.
This changes things. A witness now puts Lily at the scene where Jake was killed.
My words are slow, thought out and staccato-like. “What did they see?”
She shakes her head. “Nothing,” she says, quiet as a secret, as if someone might be listening to us. “I don’t think. Just me, walking alone, I guess because nothing was ever said about me being with someone. It must have been before,” she says, stopping there, leaving the rest unsaid. Before she met up with Jake. Before they went walking together. Before he coaxed her down that isolated trail. Before he assaulted her. Before she fought back. Before she killed him. Before she ran.
“Who?” I ask.
“The husband of one of my coworkers. Jim Brady. You met him once at a faculty holiday party.” I shrug. If I did, I don’t remember. Lily’s faculty parties happen with some frequency. Sometimes I remember colleagues of hers or their spouses, but sometimes I don’t.
“You didn’t see him?” I ask.
“No. I don’t even remember what he looks like, Christian. I wouldn’t know him if I did see him.”
“How do you know he saw you?” I ask, and she tells me how this coworker came to see her when Nina was in her classroom this afternoon. What makes it worse is that Nina now knows too that Lily was at Langley Woods.
Later, I decide that we need to find a way to move Jake’s car from the street. His car on the side of Newcomb Road is the only thing that puts him at Langley Woods, and it’s only a matter of time before his car rouses suspicion and people go there looking for him. That in and of itself wouldn’t be a big deal. But the fact that a witness now puts Lily at Langley Woods on the same day Jake disappeared worries me.
Presumably Jake’s key is on him, wherever he is. Lily keeps a copy of my car key with her in case a need arises. It’s possible Nina does the same.
